Wall Street Journal Examines’ PhRMA Role in Defeating Washington State Formulary Bill
A bill in Washington state that would have created a drug formulary for Medicaid and other state-funded health plans was defeated last week, due in large part to an "aggressive" lobbying effort by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bill would have created a list of the "best drugs" in several therapeutic classes based on scientific literature. It would have "favor[ed] drugs based on their clinical effectiveness" in an attempt to counter "extensive industry advertising" that "steer[s] doctors and patients toward certain expensive drugs," Ree Sailors, a health policy adviser to Gov. Gary Locke (D), said. Doctors would have needed state authorization to prescribe drugs not included in the formulary. Sailors said the bill would have saved Washington about $24 million by 2005 off of the approximately $1 billion the state pays each year for prescription drugs for state programs.
'New Strategies'
The Journal reports that PhRMA "aggressively" used several "new strategies" to defeat the Washington bill. The group joined with the state's biotechnology trade group to argue that the bill's price controls "would make local drug-development firms less attractive to investors." In addition, PhRMA funded a campaign by the Lansing, Mich.-based advocacy group Consumer Alliance to paint the bill as one that "would hurt the poor and minority communities by limiting their access to the top drugs." After suffering a "string of recent setbacks" -- including formularies in Michigan and Florida that were approved despite PhRMA opposition -- the victory in Washington signals that the drug industry "intends to vigorously contest [formulary] bills elsewhere," the Journal reports. Lawmakers in almost two dozen states introduced such bills this year, and more states are expected to do the same next year (Gold, Wall Street Journal, 3/20).
